Feeding Stations

[Paul B]

All fish in the sea know how to find their food and in a tank it is even easier for them. The problem is that in the sea Mother Nature supplies food all day, every day. We as humans have other lives and usually don't want to feed our fish continousely. At least I don't. Also some fish are just designed to eat a tiny bit all day because that is just the way their digestive systems were designed. Fish like pipefish and seahorses don't even have a real stomach, just a short tube that acts like a stomach and intestine. These types of fish can not store food as other fish can. Other fish with similar digestive systems are mandarins and any other fish that normally lives on tiny food such as pods. These fish can not even eat a large meal if it were offered to them which is also the reason for their tiny mouths.
For this reason I am a big advocate of feeding stations.
My tank is old and loaded with pods so I really don't have to do this but sometimes a certain fish needs a little help even if the tank is full of pods.
I recently aquired a baby female that is very skinny. I am hoping she matures to mate with my large male.
I hatch and feed live baby brine shrimp to my tank every day and most of the fish eat them, even the larger gobies but this food disappears in a few minutes. Some of it gets skimmed off or caught in powerheads and the rest migrate to the surface because baby brine shrimp are attracted to light.
Most fish that would eat pods, live on the bottom so that food is lost to them.
This feeding station is designed for baby brine shrimp. It is just a plactic container with a mesh over it that barely passes baby brine.
It also has a tube running to the surface so I can fill it with shrimp.
I fill it in the morning and fish just hang around it all day sucking out shrimp.
Many shrimp also escape to be caught by the corals.
About 15 years ago I designed and patented this type of feeding station for adult brine shrimp.
JoM Article: A New Feeding Strategy for Hippocampus sp., and other fishes, by Paul Baldassano (I do not sell these)
I have also used a different type of feeding station to feed moorish Idols.

 

[CJO]

Those are some great ideas. Do you happen to have a video of them in action?

CJ

 

[serpent]

Wow, that is a great idea. I would also love to see a video.

 

[cdness]

Great idea Paul!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Very cool Paul!

 

[Paul B]

No, no video. Just look at your computer and move the monitor back and forth. :neutral:

Many of the fish eat around the thing because the shrimp come out and are all over the place. I am sure when they get used to it, they will be all over it like the pipefish and that gobi are all the time.
The 2 mandarins hang out around the sides and suck up the shrimp that get away.


I replaced that small funnel at the top with this one. It was a small container of ink for a printer. I just removed the bottom and drilled a hole in the top.

 

[Paul B]

I built the thing mainly for this young skinny female mandarin. Up unitl now she has been afraid to go on top of it and would just suck up the shrimp around the edges but now she hangs out on top of it and sucks out dozens of shrimp. I need her to grow a little so she can mate.

 

[Paul B]

I took a short video of the thing working.

 

[_Alex_]

Very cool Paul! Might have to give this a try!

 

[bluwinghawk]

very cool

 

[Cole_lol]

What other type of feeding stations do you have up your sleave?
Like the idea!

 

[Paul B]

What other type of feeding stations do you have up your sleave?

Actually I made something like that for my moorish Idol. It was a small dish that sat on the bottom with a rigid tube going to the surface with a funnel on top just like this thing only the tube was larger. Above that was an automatic feeder that would deposit some pellets in the funnel a few times a day. There was also an airline tube carrying a little water into the funnel to help the pellets go down. The thing worked great for years and the Idol checked out the dish on every trip around the tank. He would hear the auto fish feeder running and immediatly go to the feeder and watch the pellets come down. As soon as they hit the dish, he would suck them up before any other fish got them. That is one reason I kept him for 5 years which is good for an Idol. I used to have pictures of that on here but I am not sure where they are now.
And of course the link I posted above. http://www.breedersregistry.org/Articles/v4_i3_paul_b/paul_b.htm​

 

[Paul_N]

Ingenious! Love this idea. I will definitely incorporate it into my future tank build.

 

[Paul B]

I will definitely incorporate it into my future tank build.

Incorporate away.

 

[Paul B]

It's been a little over a month since I installed this thing and I love it. My tank has 3 bluestrip pipefish, and two mandarins along with some small clown gobies and shrimp. They all hang around this thing for a few hours that it has shrimp in it. In this tank I really don't have to supliment their diet because there are plenty of pods but I like everything to spawn and the only way fish will spawn is by eating more food then they normally can and food with a high oil content such as new born brine shrimp are even better than pods.
Two of the pipefish are to young to spawn but I feel that in a couple of weeks they will be ready. Also my female mandarin is to young so this will fatten her up.
My copperband is a regular visitor here although he gets live worms every day.
It is just another thing for me to get facinated about.

 

[Paul B]

That skinny little female mandarin at the beginning of this thread is now all filled out and bordering on a little chubby. I am hopeful that soon she will grow enough to mate with the large male who so far ignores her. I don't know why, she is cute.

 

[_Alex_]

paul just wondering where you found the acrylic pipeing for this? just any plastic shop im guessing?? really wanting to make one of these for the live brine shrimp im starting to feed!!

 

[Paul B]

You can get that in a pet shop but I think I got it in an acrylic supply, I buy it in 6' lengths

 

[_Alex_]

ok we have a few acylic shops around town here i might see what they sell it for!! thanks for the ideas!

 

[Paul B]

I am happy to say that in the 5 or 6 weeks since I installed this baby brine shrimp feeding station my skinny little female mandarin fattened up nicely and is now bordering on plump.
The first picture is when I got her, you can see her sides pinched in, especially under her dorsal fin and she resembled Twiggy.
The second picture is today.